10 February 2013

Did you know that DC Thompson & Co publishes a series of slim
books under the Bridges & Knight imprint? Every month they publish four short
novels, two crime and two romance, at £1.99 each. The one I bought was 140
pages – so that’s pretty good value for money. I came across the range quite by
chance on the magazine rack in a local supermarket – and that should’ve been a
clue. I bought Stolen Sister by Maria
(or Marie) Maher from the Crime: Suspense line. Well, you have to give these
things a go, don’t you. Here are the first few lines:

‘“No, no, you will not convince me, Adora!” said Mrs Fleetwood
forcefully. “There is something not right with Angelika, I know it! […] I had
such a horrid nightmare last night. Angelika was trapped in a tiny room just
like a cell! […] Please, go down to Barcelona and look for her, or I won’t rest
[…] your sister is in trouble. I can feel it – here!”’

I won’t inflict further on you. All I’ll say is that the narrative
doesn’t improve from there. Or at least it didn’t by the time I gave up reading
it. I did glance at the last page and the final few lines made me groan – with relief
that I didn’t persevere.

DC Thompson missed a great trick. These slim volumes should’ve opened
up the market for many for our more-talented friends and thus provide readers
with well-written *suspense* stories. Instead, this particular one is weak and feels
as if it was written by someone who predominantly writes romantic tales – and hence
Stolen Sister didn’t engage with this
reader. And – oh dear – I’ve just noticed that on an inside page these books
are called “easy reads”: that says it all.

Maybe the line has ended: the DC Thompson website doesn’t seem to
mention Bridges & Knight. It does remind me, though, that I forgot to buy
the last ever print issue of The Dandy.

01 February 2013

It seems that entertainment programs (such as Spotify, the
last time I looked) and hardware (MP3 players) all include the facility to
create playlists of your favourite music. Usually, I can’t be bothered; I just take
pot luck at whatever turns up next. However, what if I had to form a favourites list … what would I include? So I’ve
decided to create my own playlist for 2013, choosing one track per day,
everyday. That means, by the end of the year I will have picked 365 songs. I am
posting these daily on my Facebook page with links to YouTube videos. The
tracks are in no particular order – just as the fancy takes me.

I decided to follow a few simple rules:

[a] All must be music I can listen to over and over
again without becoming bored with it. In other words, all would be five-star
tracks.

[b] I may pick only one track per band or performer.
This ‘rule’ will be relatively easy to obey for the first few months. But if it
becomes more difficult to select five-star songs I may relent and re-use
favourite performers.

Anyway, for the record, here are the first 31 tracks,
selected during January.

1 Fleetwood
Mac – Oh Well

2 Black
Sabbath – Paranoid

3 Capt
Beefheart – Autumn's Child

4 Jethro
Tull – A Song for Jeffrey

5 Inspiral
Carpets – Beast Inside

6 Melanie
– Leftover Wine

7 Animals
– When I was Young

8 Finbar
& Eddie Furey – Her Father Didn't Like Me, Anyway

9 Jefferson
Airplane – Lather

10 Nirvana –
Rainbow Chaser

11 Jake Bugg
– Lightning Bolt

12 Velvet
Underground – Venus in Furs

13 Lightning
Hopkins – You're Gonna Miss Me...

14 Only Ones
– Another Girl, Another Planet

15 Ronnie
Lane – How Come

16 Psychedelic
Furs – Flowers

17 Ed Banger
– Kinnel Tommy

18 Snow
Patrol – Run

19 Tom Lewis
– Fairwinds

20 Gallon
Drunk – In the Long Still Night

21 Wedding
Present – Brassneck

22 Cerys
Matthews – Oxygen

23 Manfred
Mann – I Got My Mojo Working

24 Canned
Heat – On the Road Again

25 Grant Lee
Buffalo – Teardrop and Jupiter

26 Siouxsie
& The Banshees – Helter Skelter

27 Ike &
Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High

28 Sparklehorse
– Beautiful Widow

29 Kristin
Hersh – Listerine

30 Joe
Cocker and the Grease Band – With a Little Help From my Friends